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The discoverer says a belief is credible because it has endured for centuries.
There is a persistent myth that hundreds or even thousands of years ago, long before anyone knew that blood circulates throughout the body, or that germs cause disease, our ancestors possessed miraculous remedies that modern science cannot understand. Much of what is termed "alternative medicine" is part of that myth.
Ancient folk wisdom, rediscovered or repackaged, is unlikely to match the output of modern scientific laboratories.
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Prehistoric societies were capable of treating minor injuries, such as broken bones. However, with illnesses which had no obvious cause, they turned to magic and superstition. Here. an African shaman (medicine man) is using symbols and small animals to eject a demon.
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Galen's flawed physiological scheme of the heart. (129 - 216) Influenced by Hippocrates's idea of the Four Humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile & black bile), he introduced the notion of using opposites to treat diseases. He was physician to the gladiators, and later to Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
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